Cultivator.



F. F. FERGUSON.

CULTIVATOR.

APPLICATION FILED IAN. 24. I9I4.

Patented Nov. 12, 1918.

plows.

UNITED sTaTns raTnnT ernten.

FINTON F. FERGUSON, 0F MURFREESBORO, NORTH CAROLINA.

oULTIvaToR.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, FINToN F. FERGUSON, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of the town of Murfreesboro,in the county of Hertford,State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Cultivators, of which vthe followingy is aspecification.

This invention relates broadly to agricultural implements and moreparticularly to improvements in wheeled cultivators.

The principal object of this invention is to construct the parts of adouble beamed wheeled eultivator so that the forces acting upon eachbeam may be so balanced as to cause the beam to draw straight.

Another obj ect of this invention is to provide a construction for awheeled cultivator wherein the plows carried by a single beam may beadjusted with reference to each other and the side draft caused'by saidadjustment may be balanced by an adjustable spring mechanism.

Still other and further objects of this invention will in part beobvious and will in part -be pointed out in the specificationhereinafter following by reference tothe accompanying drawings in Vwhichlike characters represent like parts throughout the several viewsthereof.

Figure 1 is a the arrangement etc. 4

F ig. 2 is a detail plan View` looking dipersp'ective View showing ofthe springs, side chains,

`rectly down upon the plow beams.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing the paths of the plows through theearth.

It is well known in the cultivator art to arrange the support vfor vthe.plows in such manner thatthe plows may be adjusted with reference toeach other to changethe space between the furrows of the individual Inthis type of adjustment it is usual to mount the plows diagonally insuch manner that their points :are set in echelon.`

lVhen this is done it will benoted that the forward plow breaks theearth an appreciable distance ahead of the next succeeding plow .and soon throughout the series. vWhere this is true the plow beam drawssidewise toward the advancing plow, f and where the plows are mountedupon beams, as in a double plow' cultivato'r, the beams draw togetherand the operator is required to continually exert forces to keep thebeams straight to overcome this side draft, the re- Specication ofLetters Patent.

- preceding plow l.

' of the plows Patented Nov. 12, 191.8.

Application led January 24, 1914. Serial No. 814,113.

sult of this being very tiresome on the arms of the person using thecultivator.

rillhe cause of this side draft is very easily explained by referring toFig. 3 of the drawings wherein it will be noted that the advancing` plowl breaks the earth on both sides of the plow and that the nextsucceeding plow 2 as it advances meets solid unbroken earth on the left,but the earth to the right has been broken by the passage of the Thissame condition is true for plow 4 and also for plow 5. The side draft itwill be seen is due to the fact that where a thingis free to swing, ormove, it will seek the path of least resistance, consequently since eachsucceeding plow engages hard unbroken earth on one side and loose brokenearth on the other, the plow will tend to follow the path of leastresistance and will draw into the brel-ren earth. The effect of themultiplicity of plows is to multiply the side draft, which is in thedirection of the arrow A, by the number of plows in the series. It willalso be noted that if the plows are adjusted to decrease the spacebetween the furrows, the right sides of the plows will encounter thebroken earth. Consequently the closer the plows are together the moretendencylthere is for succeeding plows to crowd into the furrow of thepreceding plow and therefore the more side draft.

Applicant overcomes this difficulty by arranging j adjustable springsconnected by chains to the plow beam in such manner that the springsdraw on the chains in the direction opposite to the side draft due tothe plows and consequently the force exerted by the springseounterbalances this objectionable side draft and the plow then draws ina straight line as it should. Since it is desirable to arrange the plowsprings so that they may be adjusted with reference to each other tobring the furrows closer together, applicant has arranged thecounterbalancing springs also adjustable, by means of which constructiona new balance of forces may be attained for each adjustment so that thebeams will draw straight under any adjustment of the plows withreference to each other. n

Referring now to the drawings, the arch axle 6 is mounted upon thewheels 7, and

. supports upon the upper portion of the arch by 'the usual front crossbar 9. Extending from points on the arch axle G adjacent each of thewheels T are braces 11 secured at their opposite ends to the front crossbar 9, whereby the draft on the shafts is delivered to the arch axleadjacent the connections tor the plow beams. The plow beams 12 areconnected to the arch axle 6 by the usual swivel connection 1st, and thebeams are provided with handles 15 to enable the operator to properlyguide the plow beams during the operation ot the cultivator. The rearcross bar 16, carried by the shafts 8, is provided with hooks 17, uponwhich the loops 18 on the beams 12 are adapted to be engaged to enablethe plows to be held out of theground when the cultivator is being movedfrom place to place. All of these hereinbc'forc described parts are wellknown and common in the art, and are only used in this case asillustrative of a general type of cultivator mechanism.

The plow beams 12 carry parallel iron bars 1i) and 20, which bars arepivoted on the bolts 21 and 22 respectively, which pass through the plowbeams 12. These parallel iron bars 19 and 2O :form a. support tor thespring lingers 24e, upon which the plow points 25 are mounted. Braces 26are mounted upon the bolts and extend inwardly to the inner end or thebars 20, at which points they are attached by means oi' one of the bolts27 that are used in mounting the spring fingers to the parallel ironbars 19 and 20. Flat bars QS extend from beneath the beams 1Q, outwardlyand are provided with a plurality of opening. 2i) through which certainof the outer bolts 2T, previously referred to, are adapted to pass andsecure the flat bars 28 to the outer ends of the parallel bars 20.placing the bolts 97 in the various openings 29 in the bars 2",adjustment of the distance between the individual spring fingers 2e issecured.

The arch axle 6 is attached to the middle cross bar 10 of the shafts bymeans of eyebolts 3l, each of which carries on its upper end a plateseated over the end ot one ot the springs The end portions of thcsprings comprise U-shaped members having long parallelly extending sidearms which permit the springs as a whole to be rotated or adjustedlaterally a considerable extent with relation to the eye-bolts tor apurpose to be hereinafter more fully pointed out. This adjustment isaccomplished by merely loosening the fastening nuts which maintain theplates in contact with the springs and then moving the springs in thedesired man-- ner. The springs are provided on their upper and outerends with hooks 36 which ven- Copes of this patent may be obtained forgage links of the chains 37, extending inwardly with relation to avertical plane and securely fastened at their lower ends to the plowbeams 12. Due to the inclination of the chains it will be apparent thatthe springs exert an upward and outward pull on each of the plow beams12. The amount ot this pull and the angles through which it acts may bevaried at will by adjusting the springs in the manner described. rl`hetension of the springs is such that in normal conditions they exert butlittle pull on the plow beams, this pull gradually increasing when thecultivator is in use and the plow points tend to move inwardly asclearly shown in Fig. 3. Thus the springs have a tendency to `alwaysmaintain the plow points in their proper operating` positions under allconditions of operation.

lt will be noted that when the angular adjustment of the parallel ironbars 19 and 2O is changed by means et changing the bolts j' with respectto the flat bars 28, the springs 35 can also be changed to cause them todraw chains 37 outwardly, as shown in Fie. 1, thereby exactlycounterbalancing the side draft on the plow beams. The result of thisarrangement is to enable the operator at all times to so balance thebeams that they will draw straight, such an operation being verydesirable.

Having thus described my invention. what I desire to claim is 1n awheeled cultivator the combination of a wheeled support, a main framemounted on said wheeled support, plow beams pivotally mounted on saidwheeled support, a plurality oi' plows adjustably mounted on each beam,said plows being arranged on each beam in echelon with the advancingplow arranged on the inner side of the plow beam and with the path ofthe succeeding plows on the beam arranged suthcientl close together thateach preceding plow reaks the ground adjacent the succeeding plowwhereby said plow beams tend to draw together, springs provided withcentral coil portions and outwardly extending arms, ad justablemountings for said springs on the main frame whereby the arms of saidsprings may be set to pull upwardly and outwardly, and chainsoperatively connecting the ends of said arms with the plow beams in suchmanner that the said springs counterbalance the inward draw to the plowbeams.

FINTON F. FERGUSON.

lVitnesses:

ROGER WATSON, W. A. McGLoHoN.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington,D. C.

